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"Teaching the things concerning the kingdom of God..."
FROM THE CANDLESTICK TO THE THRONE
Part 108
THE SOUNDING
OF THE TRUMPETS
(continued)
And the third angel sounded, and there fell a great star from heaven, burning as it were
a lamp, and it fell upon the third part of the
rivers, and upon the fountains of waters: and
the name of the star is called Wormwood: and
the third part of the waters became wormwood; and
many men died of the waters, because they were made bitter (Rev. 8:10-11).
As the trumpets
sound we see actions that originate out of the heavens of the spirit and enter powerfully
into the symbolic earth and the sea of our natural lives.
It is the realm of the spirit where God dwells and from whence He moves to
redeem and transform us in soul and body! In
the passage above a great star falls from heaven, burning as it were a lamp,
and falls upon the third part of the rivers and
fountains of waters! Not the literal springs and rivers that flow
through earths mountains, plains, and valleys, of course, but the rivers of mans human life and mans fallible word rather than Gods divine life and heavens living word! Just as the Spirit of God and the living Word
of God make up the wonderful river of life in the closing chapters of the
Revelation, and flow out from God, so the spirit of the world and the word
of man comprise the carnal rivers and waters of the
earth-realm which flow out of the carnal minds and hearts of natural men.
The great
star, burning as it were a lamp, is a burning word of authority and power! It is Christ Himself, the bright and
morning star, who is the Word of God, and descends out of the heavens of our
spirit to fall upon the soulical rivers and upon the human well-springs of imaginations,
carnal knowledge, and worldly wisdom that
flow within our earthly, natural, human life and identity.
Rivers suggest the flow of these ideas and beliefs as they are
taught, propagated, and assimilated into the minds, hearts, and behavior of mankind. These constitute the word and spirit that flow out
of a carnal realm Christ falls upon these with His blazing word of divine Spirit
and heavenly Truth and turns them to wormwood
bitterness!
By that bitterness, death is brought to that realm! Not only a third part of the rivers, but also the
fountains of waters, that is, the water
sources are rendered undrinkable. The
fountains of waters represent the sources of the ideas, concepts, philosophies,
teachings, precepts, creeds, doctrines, traditions, ideologies, observances, customs, laws all the
intellectual, moral, political, and religious influences of this world which are the sources from which men
draw their life, their natural joy and refreshment, their ways of thinking, their image of
themselves, their understanding of the world, their vocations, life-styles, their hopes,
dreams, and ambitions, and their relationships.
If ever a purging was needed, it is here!
The great
star is Christ! And the name of the star is called Wormwood: and
the waters became wormwood (bitter). It is Christ Himself who causes the streams of our
natural life, human understanding, worldly wisdom, and mans religion to be made bitter! And
many men died of the waters, because they were made bitter. Oh, yes!
The very thing that was once life to us now becomes death! That is the divine wisdom and effective processing
of the Lord in the lives of His elect!
The river of God
is spiritual, the rivers of earth are soulical. The
river of God is the spirit of the word, the
rivers of earth are the letter of the word. The river of God is essence, the rivers of earth are form. The
river of God is living reality, the rivers of
earth are lifeless shadows and deceptive illusions. The river of God is truth and life,
the rivers of earth are cold, dead facts in
which there is no life! There are many
things that are true, but they are not the truth. They
are cold, dead facts, but they are not quickening life
and power! And now may I exhort you to flee from those things
which are true but not Truth, as surely and swiftly as you would flee your home if you
discovered it to be a den of rattlesnakes!
We
have a whole crop of doom-casters in the land today who spend their time and energy in
nothing else but informing the Lords people of all the negative situations which are
going to overtake our nation and the world! Many
of the Lords precious people are being fed a steady diet of messages, articles,
books, and tapes about world conditions, politics, the situation in the Middle East, oil
crisis, economic collapse, one world government, conspiracies of the Illuminati, Council
on Foreign Relations, World Trade Organization, World Bank, European Common Market Beast
Government, the Antichrist, the mark of the beast, cashless society, strikes, riots, war,
terrorism, the great tribulation, supposed safe areas, food storage, living
off the land, planetary conjunctions, pestilence, tsunamis, erratic weather conditions,
wickedness, catastrophes, the end of the world, and a whole catalog of other fearful and
frightening events which they imagine fulfill the prophecies of the book of Revelation,
some of which will undoubtedly happen, just as they have happened historically through the
ages, but many of which I tell you now are nothing more than wild and sensational
speculations conceived in the darkness of the carnal minds of men who masquerade as
end-time teachers and prophets of God, bewitching the saints. The natural mind, my beloved, is certainly one of
the well-springs and sources of the earthly fountains of waters from whence
flow the rivers of carnal ideas, concepts, teachings, and imaginations of
which the inhabitants of the earth drink and find a certain level of
excitement, refreshment, and fulfillment.
Let every child
of God who has had birthed within his bosom the beautiful hope of sonship turn the
searchlight of sincerity and truth upon his pure heart and ask this one important
question: Do any of the above mentioned things minister LIFE? Does the knowing and study of them cause you to be
more filled with the Spirit? Do they enable
you to put on the mind of Christ? Do they
work deliverance and overcoming power in your life? Do
they transform you into the image of the firstborn Son of God? Do they flood your life with peace and joyful
expectation in Christ? Do they imbue you with
spiritual wisdom and understanding, with righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost? Do they inspire you with ever-increasing faith by
which you shall conquer every enemy and lay hold upon life and immortality? Are they TRUTH, quickening, life-giving Truth, or
are they, one and all, merely things that are true,
or, perhaps, may be true, or may not even be true at all! I have no hesitation whatever in telling you that
all these streams of teaching are naught but carnal rivers flowing through the earth-realm!
And the
name of the star is called Wormwood: and the
third part of the waters became wormwood
(Rev. 8:11).
Wormwood simply
means bitter or bitterness. This
is reminiscent of the children of Israel when they were dying of thirst in the desert! It was only three days after they had crossed the
Red Sea. When Moses led out the people of
Yahweh, he led them to the wilderness of Shur and for three days they found no water. At last they came to the waters of Marah, and the
people cried out against Moses, for the waters were bitter and they could not drink them. Therefore they cried, Marah! Marah! which means Bitterness! Then Moses cried to the Lord, and the Lord showed
him a tree, and when he had cut it down he was divinely directed to throw that into the
waters of Marah, and the waters became sweet (Ex. 15:22-26).
Here in the
Revelation there is one significant difference. In
Israels experience in the desert the waters were bitter and by the word of the Lord
they were made sweet. Here, however, the
waters seem sweet, but by the word of the Lord they are made bitter! In both cases it is the Lord Himself who changes
the waters! Yes, IT IS THE LORD! This star which is Christ, descends
upon the earthly rivers and fountains of waters as a beaming ray of brilliancy; but to the
carnal mind it is poison Wormwood! Wormwood
is the bitterest shrub known to botanists. Several
varieties are found in the Middle East. Wormwood
has a bitter, nauseating taste. When it is
used freely, it produces convulsions, paralysis, and death.
In the Hebrew language its name means to curse, and rightly so,
as it is listed among the curses given by the Lord to Moses.
The presence of
the Lord and the anointed word of God have a way of poisoning
mans word, so far as man is concerned. That
the rivers and fountains of waters represent the flowing of a word through our
land, which the Lord Himself embitters with wormwood, is wonderfully clear in the prophecy
of Jeremiah. And I have seen the folly in the prophets of
Samaria: they prophesied in Baal, and caused my
people Israel to err. I have seen also in
the prophets of Jerusalem an horrible thing: they commit adultery, and walk in lies
therefore thus saith the Lord
of hosts concerning the prophets; Behold, I will feed
them with the bitterness of wormwood, and
make them drink the poisonous water of gall: for
from the prophets of Jerusalem is profaneness gone forth into all the land (Jer.
23:13-15, KJV & Amplified).
And many
men died of the waters, because they were made bitter, signifies the extinction of our
desire to partake any longer of the polluted waters of earth, for a man is called alive
when he desires, seeks, trust in, or responds to the environment around him. When one is separated from a world of life,
or what is counted as life, he is considered dead. Many
saints have become dead to the world they used to live in! The things that once were life to them have now become death. Truly,
we who have been apprehended to the high calling of God have died to the world, we have
died to sin, we have died to various religious realms, and we have died to so-called
truths we once held as sacred. Because the waters were made bitter indicates that God has brought us to the place of
maturity in the spiritual life of Christ where all the philosophies, methods, ways, and
spirit of the world, as well as the multiplied religious activities of the old-order
church systems have lost their appeal, attractiveness, and glamour none of them
hold anything for us anymore! Not only do
they not hold anything for us, but they have become to us repugnant, repulsive,
unpleasant, unpalatable, insipid, and nauseating! Truly,
all these waters have been made wormwood unto us! And our wonderful Lord in His great mercy and love
has done this for us! Because of His great
purpose for us, predestined before the foundation of the world, He now calls us away from
the rivers of earth that we may live only and always by the river of life that flows from
the throne of God and the Lamb! Isnt it
wonderful!
How powerfully
we see this in the life of our blessed forerunner, the firstborn Son of God! Though Jesus was made of a woman, and
made under the law, being raised in the synagogue with all the practices of
the religious life of the people of Israel, by the sovereign revelation of His Father,
when His sonship was revealed to Him, He saw the law for what it was bondage and
vanity. And He could never redeem us from the
bondage and curse of the law unto the liberty and glory of sonship until He Himself once
and forever REPUDIATED THE LAW and stepped forth to live only and wholly by the Father! He had to abandon the righteousness of the law in
order to reveal the righteousness of God by the Spirit!
That is precisely what He did when He came to John the Baptist and was
baptized unto
repentance. That means Jesus repented! He was the only man who ever lived that kept
perfectly every precept of the law. He was
the blameless, spotless, pure, holy, and undefiled Lamb of God, the only sinless One of humanity! Other men came to Johns baptism repenting of
sin. But Jesus had done no sin, therefore He could not
repent of sin. Yet He was baptized unto
repentance!
Jesus repented! What a thought!
The only thing He could repent of was the old covenant His Father had
subjected Him to. It was a hindrance to His
sonship, for it was an inferior order that was ready to pass away. As long as He was a child He was subject to the
tutors and governors of the law, but when the hour arrived for the unveiling of His mature
sonship He walked down to the river Jordan and was baptized unto that repentance, or
turning from the law, and came out of the water in the power of the Spirit of His Father! He buried the law, and all the old order of the
old covenant, and was invested upon by the glory of the new order of His Father! He stepped forth with the public recognition by
His Father. He was recognized as the SON OF
GOD for the first time when His heavenly Father spoke out of the open heavens proclaiming
a Son who was no longer under the tutelage of the schoolmaster of the law. He had turned from being ruled by the law to being
ruled by the Spirit of Life! He turned from
the natural to the spiritual! He turned from
the human to the divine! He turned from the
earthly to the heavenly! He turned from being
a channel, a riverbed for the waters of a carnal, lifeless, earthly word, to becoming the
spring, the fountain, the reservoir of that living water which flows from the heart of
God! From that time on He was filled with the
Spirit and led by the Spirit. The waters of
eternal and incorruptible life flowed from His innermost being! His life changed dramatically! He did all these things to deliver us from the
limited waters of the earth-realm and bring us to the unlimited celestial waters of the
kingdom of God! It is indeed wonderful!
The flowing
streams and fountains of waters of the external form of truth in the law were made wormwood made bitter, even poisonous,
so that the Son of God would turn from them and drink of them no more! It was the Father Himself who turned those waters
of Old Testament truth and revelation to wormwood! And
because of the bitterness of those waters to the pure, holy spirit of sonship within
Jesus, He died to that realm once and for all! The firstborn Son of God understood this very
clearly by the mind of the Father! Out from
under the curses of the law He never condemned the prostitute, the fornicator, the
tax-gatherer, the thieves, or murderers. He
never demonstrated holy anger against the Romans, the world, or the wicked. It was the religious
leaders that He denounced! His anger was
focused on the hypocrisy of the so-called carriers of Gods word! He condemned those who laid heavy burdens upon the
people, yet they themselves could not keep the laws they tried to enforce! They appeared clean on the outside, but inside
were full of greed and wickedness! Those who
gave tithes and fasted and prayed and loved the best seats in the synagogues to be seen of
men, He rebuked! Those who distorted the word
of God, who turned the truth of God into a lie, who misrepresented the nature of His
Father, and loaded people down with religious burdens and obligations, He called a
generation of vipers a brood of snakes! (Mat.
23:2-7,13-15).
What
an astonishing word for Jesus to deliver to those lettered doctors of the law and chief
priests who had studied the scriptures and were esteemed leaders of the religion of the
past! Just as those religious leaders could
not discern the day of their visitation and refused to relinquish the old in order to
apprehend the new, so are there multitudes in this new kingdom day who will fail to make
the transition by repentance, and will reject the new thing God is about to do in the
earth. Those who drink from the corrupted,
polluted streams of mans religion will reject the river of God that flows from the
manifest sons of God in the hour of Gods unveiling!
Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!
for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men: for ye neither go in yourselves, neither
suffer ye them that are entering to go in. Woe
unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye devour widows houses, and for a
pretense make long prayer: therefore ye shall receive the greater damnation (judgment,
processing). Woe unto you, scribes and
Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is
made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves (Mat.
23:13-15).
I do not for one
moment doubt that this is what Jesus would say about the leaders of the church systems of
our day! If Jesus was walking among us today,
as He once was with a body of flesh and blood, He would utter the same denouncements
against the carnal church systems today! And
He is walking among us now, not as Jesus in the
flesh, but as Christ, the Spirit! Jesus had
no fear of the multitudes who heard Him rebuke and chastise the scribes and Pharisees that
day for their useless, empty, vain, pompous, carnal religious practices! Much of what the Christian leaders do today only
appears to be spiritual, but all of it is totally religious. In many cases it is done to cover up their hidden
agenda, which is to deceive their unsuspecting followers, to gain a following, to build a
kingdom, and to take from them for their own prestige and gain. Father is leading His elect onward and upward
spiritually, from the low lands of Christendoms infantile experiences, to the more
mature high places of relationship with Him. He
has called us to ascend the heights of mount Zion, that here we may grow spiritually, step
by step, into the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. And in that process of growth, our Father is
delivering us from the lifeless doctrines and static creeds of the past! He has turned all those streams into
wormwood, and we are no longer able to drink of those waters! And Father is doing a very strong and sure work of
cleansing us within to deliver us, once and for all time, from all the earthly rivers and
fountains of waters of mans carnal and corrupt religious systems. He does this, first of all, by giving us a
revelation, causing us to see Babylon for what it is! Within us, within our minds, hearts, and nature,
He comes into our world in the power of His Spirit and makes all the rivers of Babylon
bitter to our taste!
How well I
remember when the Spirit of the Lord in my life began to turn the waters of Babylon to
wormwood! I sat in the same pew where the
word coming forth had seemed life to me, it was exciting and satisfied my soulish
understanding, emotions, and desires. Yet
suddenly that same word and those same activities that had blessed me became repulsive and
abhorrent I could stand it no longer, I wanted to throw up! The waters were made death to me! They became poison!
When I drank of them they made me sick!
If I would have continued to drink of them they would have killed me! Oh, yes! IT
WAS THE LORD WHO DID THIS! The star from
heaven, burning as a lamp, fell upon my rivers and upon my fountains of waters, making
them wormwood!
Every member of
Gods elect can testify that the things we once loved we now hate. Things that were important to us, now appear
insignificant and worthless. The pleasures of
sin, the allurements of the world, the priorities of society, the vain traditions of
religion all become a weariness and stench in our nostrils.
Someone once asked, If I become a Christian can I still get drunk? A wise believer responded, Yes, you can get
drunk all you want to! He knew that once the higher and more glorious
life and reality of the Lord was raised up in that man, Christ would take the want
to out of him! And let me tell you, my
brother, my sister, I am perfectly free to attend, join, support, and be active in any
religious system of man that I want to. Oh, yes! But
I testify to every man who reads these words that long ago the blessed spirit of wisdom
and revelation from God purged my ransomed soul from any desire to enter the harlots
house.
There is a truth
that is deeper yet than this. I must confess
that I have often been distressed by the lack of understanding
among the Lords people. Somehow so many
seem to miss the point. And nowhere is this more true than when we
come to the harlot church systems of man! Let
me make this point as clearly as I can. The mother of harlots is not the Roman Catholic Church. The mother
of harlots is a lot closer home! The mother of harlots is still birthing her children! The mother
of harlots is the soulish dimension of mans life that through her carnal
sense-consciousness and human logic and reasoning births what she believes is pleasing to God, what she feels is the worship of God, what she perceives to be the work of God, and what she determines to be the way of God. The mother
of harlots is our very own soul our own religious mind, will, emotion, and desire! Where did the Roman Catholic Church, with all her
false doctrines, pagan practices, and carnal rituals, come from? Did it not proceed out of the carnal, soulish
heart of man? You see, beloved, carnal church
systems are not really birthed out of other carnal church systems at all they are,
one and all, birthed out of the mother of them
all the soulish heart of man! Viewed from this vantage point, it could well be
said that the systems constitute the rivers whereas the carnal soul of each of
us is the fountain-head or the head-waters from whence they flow! Ah, it is even here within us that the fountains
of waters have been made wormwood! It is a marvelous wonder of Gods grace
that the waters which were once so sweet and satisfying to us have been made bitter, and
as we drank of them death was worked in us, and
at last that realm died within our hearts, and
the waters of religion no longer flow through our land!
We now stand on the banks of a vast reservoir and the artesian fountains of
the deep of Christs incorruptible and immortal life have sprung up within us and out
of our innermost being, from the inner sanctum of our spirit, flow rivers of living water! There
is a river, the streams whereof shall make glad the city of our God, the holy place of the
tabernacles of the most High (Ps. 46:4)
Have this
mind in you, says the apostle, which was also in Christ Jesus (Phil.
2:5). To be a son of God is to do just that,
to have the spirit of Christ and to learn to think and act out of the reality of sonship
to God. We no longer see ourselves after the
childish mentality that calls us sinners saved by grace. No more are we to be called after the much
maligned, generic term, Christian, which can mean almost anything! Beloved, now are we the sons of God!
Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should
be called the sons of God!
Therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew Him not. We are now laying aside our own mentality,
conditioned as it is by the spirit of the world and the foolishness of religion, and
accept the instruction of the Christ within. As
our minds are exposed to the spirit of wisdom and revelation from God, our thoughts,
understandings, and beliefs undergo a marvelous change.
Our fallacies, misconceptions, errors, ignorance, and illusions lose their
power over us and we begin to know the truth that makes us free. The power and glory of our sonship to God cannot
be revealed through us as long as we are in bondage
to any realm of knowledge or false conceptions about God, about ourselves, or about our
glorious Fathers purposes in us and in creation.
In order to completely deliver us and truly make us free, the star that Christ is, is falling in power upon all
the streams of our natural, human lives and turning them every one into bitterness! Oh, the wonder of it!
Blessed be His
name! God has provided some better thing for us and now we can return
the way has been opened into the presence of God, into the life of God, into the kingdom
of God, into the city of God where flows the pure river of the water of life! Thats what this journey is all about, and
thats why the trumpets are sounding their blasts in our land its
calling us to a return to the Lord. It is our
return to the heavenly; our return to the spiritual; our return to the mind of Christ; our
return to the image of God; our return to Eden; our return to the kingdom; our return to
the incorruptible; our return to the Elohim; our return to the throne! Theres a call within us, and deep calleth
unto deep. I tell you, my beloved, there is
something within me, an inner compulsion, and I know I have passed the point of no return. There is no turning back from this Quest for God! The trumpets are sounding and I must arise
again and again to march forward into my promised land!
There is no turning back because my heart has returned to the Lord!
And the fourth angel sounded, and the third part of the sun was smitten, and the third part of the moon, and the third part of the stars; so as the third part of
them was darkened, and the day shone not for the third part of it, and the night likewise
(Rev. 8:12).
This is the
fourth angel to sound, and it is significant to note what happened on the fourth creative day as God arranged the cosmos in
that long-ago beginning. And God said, let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide
the day from the night; and let them be for signs,
and for seasons, and for days, and years. And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light
upon the earth: and it was so. And God
made two great lights; the greater light to rule
the day, and the lesser light to rule the
night: He made the stars also. And God
set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light
upon the earth, and to rule over the day and
over the night (Gen. 1:14-18).
The truth of the
great lights in the heavens includes many wonderful examples of that which is taking place
in the realm of the spirit. The sun, moon,
and stars of the heavens exist in a realm where God is absolute Sovereign and Lord, far
above the sin, confusion, sorrow, strife, pain, and death of earth. Therefore, in their highest meaning, in their
spiritual meaning, the sun, moon, and stars are used to represent HEAVENLY, SPIRITUAL RULE
AND DOMINION. The prophet said, The
heavens do rule. That is the great truth revealed when at the
moment of creation the almighty Creator proclaimed of the lights of the heavenly realm, Let them be for light upon the earth
the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night. The primary thought is that of rulership and
dominion! The God of heaven rules over all,
and can we now open the eyes of our understanding to behold the wondrous truth that Gods
elect sons are destined, with their sovereign
and glorious Father, to become the CONSTELLATIONS OF THE SPIRITUAL HEAVENS, THE LUMINARIES
AND RULERS IN GODS SKY! As the glory of
the Lord arises upon His chosen ones they pierce the gloom of earths dark night of
sin and sorrow and bring deliverance, life, and order out of the chaos of mans
failure and despair. And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and
they that turn many to righteousness as the stars
for ever and ever (Dan. 12:3). Can
we not see by this that those who rule and reign with Christ in His kingdom are indeed THE
SUN, MOON, AND STARS IN THE HEAVENS OF THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD!
The sun in
prophecy is the most exalted ruler in any order. We
find that God, the supreme Ruler, is called in the scripture a sun. For
the Lord thy God is a sun and a shield (Ps. 84:11). Also,
our elder brother, the Lord Jesus Christ, who is King of kings, and Lord of lords, is
called the sun of righteousness (Mal. 4:2). Furthermore, we find in reference to men, He that ruleth
over men
shall be as the light of the morning, when the sun ariseth (II Sam. 23:3-4). David the king was called the light
of Israel (II Sam. 21:17). This
same meaning is found in II Kings 8:19 where we read, Yet the Lord would not destroy Judah for David
His servants sake, as He promised him to give him always a light.
This is exactly the same promise we find in Jeremiah 33:17 where the Lord
says, David shall never want a man to sit upon the throne of the house of Israel. Our Father has told us, heaven is my throne, and earth is my footstool
(Isa. 66:1). Heaven is His throne, or may
we say, His throne is heaven! Heaven
bespeaks of rulership and dominion, the lights of the heavens are the individual rulers
who occupy the heavenly thrones of authority and power!
The earth is that which is ruled by the heavens that which looks to
the sun, moon, and the stars for its light and direction.
Thus, the heavenly bodies are here viewed solely in relation to the
earth-realm and those who dwell in the earthlies. There
is an order of human government now, but all these are soon to pass away, as those heavens
pass away with a great noise, and the lights thereof are darkened, fall from heaven, and a
new order shall be inaugurated.
It is
interesting that on the fourth day of creation
God ordained the lights of the heavens, the sun, moon, and stars; and when the fourth trumpet sounds it is the heavenly bodies
that are the object of the Lords work. It
is of further interest to note that in Christs message to the fourth church the promise is that the overcomer
shall receive the morning star and become a ruler! Finally, in chapter sixteen of the
Revelation it is the pouring out of the fourth vial
that brings a final judgment upon the sun!
The divine
pattern in all these things becomes clear once we understand the great truth that there
are revealed in this wonderful book of Revelation two
heavens and two earths! The blessed Seer of Patmos beheld these in rapt
vision and recorded what he saw in these inspired words, And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no
more sea (Rev. 21:1). There is an
old heaven and there is a new heaven! There
is an old earth and there is a new earth! The old heaven and earth pass away, but we look
for new heavens and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness (II Pet. 3:13). It should be clear to any thinking mind that the
old heaven with its sun, moon, and stars, is the old world of human consciousness, worldly
society, and man-made religion with all its luminaries the lights that
governed, controlled, dictated, constrained. inspired and directed our thinking,
understanding, ways, will, desires, ambitions, and conduct in the world of humanity. It is a source of wonder to me that very few
believers perceive the contrast between the rivers and fountains of
waters under the third trumpet, and the sun, moon, and
stars of the heavens of the fourth trumpet. Let me make it very clear. The rivers and fountains of
waters under the third trumpet represent that which we partake of, which we
willingly appropriate to ourselves because of the perceived benefit received thereby. People drink water because they are thirsty and
the water meets the need of their life. But
the heavens rule! This is more than refreshment, my friend, it points to the authority, power, and dominion
exercised upon us by realms which impress themselves upon us!
Each
of us has at some point (again and again) received a new understanding, revelation,
quickening, and dealing of God in our lives. Gladly we embraced what Father was showing and
doing, and we separated from former ways of thinking and walking as well as from previous
associations. We stopped drinking from those
fountains! For instance, there came a day
when we no longer saw ourselves as merely human, or sinners saved by
grace, no longer were we trying to reform old Adam and make our flesh or
natural man conform to the righteousness of God. We
now knew that we were not human beings having a spiritual experience, but indeed we were spiritual beings having a human experience!
We saw clearly that we are the offspring of God, with the seed of divine
life within, truly sons of the living God! For the first time we understood that we cannot
make our flesh better, that only by nurturing and growing up the spiritual man within
could the old mind and nature be overcome. The
errors of religion and our old mind-set and understanding of ourselves and Gods plan
and purpose for us and His whole creation were radically changed! Though we fully and gladly embraced these and many
more truths, and did our best to make a clean break from all the false concepts and
beliefs and from all the old orders that dominated our lives, still many were
haunted by the old ways of looking at things, apprehensive that maybe they
were now mistaken or deceived, and troubled that they no longer attended the former church
orders they had been a part of, plagued by a residual guilt that they were not still
doing all the things they used to do for God! Though they were convinced of the truth of the
new, the old continued to come in and try to lay a claim upon them, plaguing them with
apprehension, fear, and sometimes even torment! Many
have vacillated back and forth for a season, torn between the old and the new, between
religion and Christ, between error and truth.. Oh,
yes! Their rivers and fountains
of waters had been turned to wormwood, and they had fled from those waters to drink
from the river of God. Yet the sun,
moon, and stars of that old order the powers of their old heavens continued to shine
upon them, asserting their authority out of that old heavenly realm, trying still to
control, dictate, dominate, govern, rule, and subdue them!
Can you not see the mystery? The
third trumpet had done its work, but the fourth trumpet was yet to sound! The lights of the old heavens must be darkened
until there is no more pull or power over us in any way.
Only then are we truly free!
These
two heavens the old heavens of mans order,
and the new heavens of Gods rule by the Spirit, are both presented throughout the
book of Revelation and we must be keen in discernment to understand which is in view in
any scene. Let me put it this way. One way to recognize whether it is the old heaven
or the new heaven is to observe the action
taking place. The heavens that are being
darkened, smitten, falling, rolled together as a scroll, and passing away with a great
noise certainly are not the new heavens, for only the old heavens pass away
and the new are established in righteousness and glory and power forevermore! It is the heavens of Gods kingdom where sons
reign upon the throne and from whence the seven spirits of God are sent forth into all the
earth! It is the new heavens of the Spirit of
the Lord from which the holy city, New Jerusalem, descends (Rev. 21:2)! It is out of the heavens of God that the great
voice is heard saying, Behold, the tabernacle
of God is with men, and He shall dwell with them, and they shall be His people, and God
Himself shall be with them, and be their God (Rev. 21:3). All through the book of Revelation grand and
glorious things take place in, and out from, the heavens of Gods Spirit! The seven angels that blow the seven trumpets
sound forth their messages out of the heavens of God!
Can we not see by this that it cannot be the sun, moon, and stars of the
heavens where we dwell that are smitten and
darkened!
Oh, wonder of
wonders! It is my deep conviction that in our
text it is the third part of the sun of the old
heavens, a third part of the moon of the old
heavens, and a third part of the stars of the old
heavens that are smitten, and the lights (rulerships, authorities, dominions) of that
old world of man, of mans thinking, mans economy, mans politics, mans
philosophies, mans orders, mans religion, and all the rest, are smitten and
darkened in our lives. It is not just our
desire to imbibe of those things that is taken away, as under the third trumpet, but now
their rule their authority their power over us is broken! What
we see here is the doing away with the old creation and the bringing forth of the new. This is happening within the life of every overcomer, for if any man be in Christ, he is a new creation: old things are passed away; behold, all things
are become new! (II Cor. 5:17). It
is the dominion of Gods government coming and being established in His elect which
evokes the darkening of the old heavens within us! The
prophet Isaiah spoke of this wonderful reality of the darkening of the heavens of mans
world when he prophesied, Then the moon shall
be confounded, and the sun ashamed, when the Lord of hosts shall reign in mount Zion, and
in Jerusalem, and before His ancients gloriously (Isa. 24:23).
The
type for this was first seen in the land of Egypt when God sent the plagues for the
deliverance of His people. And the Lord said unto Moses, Stretch out thine
hand toward heaven, that there may be darkness
over the land of Egypt, even darkness which may be felt. And Moses stretched forth his hand toward heaven;
and there was a thick darkness in all the land of
Egypt three days: they saw not one another, neither rose any from his place for three
days: but all the children of Israel had light in
their dwellings (Ex. 10:21-23). Is
it not remarkable that while there was dense darkness over the whole land of Egypt, yet
there was light in all the land of Goshen where the children of Israel lived! Do not fear the darkening of the old heavens you
have lived under, my beloved, for while thick darkness covers the old past orders of our
lives, so that nothing of that realm can function or exert authority over us anymore, yet
our gracious and wise heavenly Father has provided wonderful light a new mind, a
new consciousness, a new understanding, a new heart, a new spirit, a new identity, a new
nature the scintillating light of truth, life, and reality in the spirit! Oh, yes!
There is light in all the dwellings of the new creation that we are! There is the
pure white light of the glorified Christ in our spirit!
Just as the darkness over the land of Egypt was designed by God as an
instrument to deliver His people out of the bondage of Egypt, so the darkening of the old
heavens of our natural lives, all those things, people, systems, and realms which exerted
authority and dominion over us, is the hand of God moving to deliver us from the bondage
of the Egypt of this present world system.
One strange
phenomenon appears in Johns vision of the darkening of the celestial bodies
the fact that it is only one third of each that is darkened. Stranger yet is the statement, and the day shone not for the third part of it,
and the night likewise. Certainly
this is not the natural result of the darkening of a third part of the literal sun, moon,
and stars! Should one third of the sun be
darkened we would have less light during the day, but the effect would not be that our day
would be one-third shorter. Yet, if a third
part of the sun of our physical heavens was darkened we would see it, feel it, and the whole earth and
every living thing would be affected by it! The temperatures would drop, crops would fail,
food would become scarce, and great distress would come to mankind. Should a third part of the moon and the stars be
smitten it would have various negative effects also.
Those who are guided by the stars would be thrown into confusion!
So what is the
solution to this mystery? It reveals, first
of all, that we have not here a literal phenomenon, but a symbolic representation of spiritual things!
The one third of everything under the first four trumpets
stands for the elect of God! As the work
represented by these visions is accomplished within us we are being prepared for the unveiling of Christ in us, and the
manifestation of Christ through us, in all
His fullness and glory! The rest of the world
is not being dealt with in this way nor on this level at this time, but the one-third
company is! While the systems of man
and the delusions and tyranny of the carnal
mind still control the nations of earth, they no longer control the overcomers! We make up the one-third. The sun of mans order no longer
shines in the realm we live in, for we live as the new earth, under the rule of the new
heavens, therefore mans day, symbolically, is one
third shorter than it was when all the people, including the Lords people,
walked under the dominion of the earthly, carnal systems of man! The moon and the stars of mans order no
longer lighten the world we walk in, therefore the night of mans world
is one third shorter than before!
Furthermore,
the natural sun, moon, and stars were the light of the outer court of Moses tabernacle. There was no other light. The outer court had no covering, so its light was
the sun, moon, and stars. In the inner court
of the holy place lamps were used as the source of light.
In the most holy place, however,
there was no light of the sun, nor any light of the moon, nor the light of
the stars. Those lights were completely
eclipsed, and the glory of God alone was the light! As the sons of God come to perfection
and the fullness of Christ, the lights and luminaries of the old heavens truly become
darkened, so that the word of the Seer of Patmos is fulfilled in us And he carried me away in the spirit to a great
and high mountain, and he showed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of
heaven from God, having the glory of God: and her light was like the light of a stone most
precious, even like a jasper stone, clear as
crystal: and the city had no need of the light
of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: FOR THE GLORY OF GOD DID LIGHTEN IT, AND THE LAMB IS THE LIGHT THEREOF
(Rev. 21:10-11,23).
The
New Jerusalem does not need the light of the sun, moon, or stars (outer court), nor the
light of any lamp (holy place), because in this Holy of holies dwells the eternal presence
of the almighty Father and the Lamb who are the light of it. The city has no outer court or holy place! Those holy sons of God who dwell there have no
need for the outward light of creeds,
doctrines, laws, ceremonies, rituals, ordinances, baptisms, organizations, programs, or
any other work of man, for the very presence, life, mind, and nature of God Himself within is their illumination! The holy place of Moses tabernacle was
oblong in shape, being thirty feet in length, fifteen in width, and fifteen in height. The Holy of holies, on the other hand, was fifteen
feet in length, width, and height, or a perfect cube.
The only other cube described in the scriptures is the holy city, New
Jerusalem! The perfect cube of the Holy of holies now finds its
fulfillment in the city of God! The length and the breadth and the height of it
are equal (Rev. 21:16). Now a cube
is the most perfect figure, being equal on every side finite perfection. It has what you call finality, it is the most
comprehensive, and it holds the most nothing contains as much as a cube and
therefore, it is given here as the expression of perfection
and fullness.
It is divinely inwrought perfection and fullness the very glory
of God and therefore it is spoken of as a cube.
The message is clear one can never know the glory, illumination, and
power of this city in the outer court of popular religion, nor yet in the holy place of
Pentecostal economy. Only those who by faith
enter in beyond the veil into the glorious and eternal reality of the most holy place can
ever begin to touch and know the surpassing glory, perfection, and fullness, of this realm
of Gods life!
When
God reveals this New Jerusalem people in all His fullness the world will know this
wondrous fact, that the glory which Thou
gavest me, I have given them. The glory of God is the light
of this great city! Not only is it the light
of the city, but it shall become also the light of the whole world, for the nations of them that are saved shall walk in
the light of it (Rev. 21:24). The
light of God is pure light, total white light, for in
Him there is no darkness at all (I Jn. 1:5).
All through the scriptures we find that light has been a symbol for both the
Spirit and the Truth. When
the Bible says of the holy city that her light shall be like a jasper stone, clear as
crystal, it simply reveals Gods called and chosen elect as having come to all light,
perfect light, all truth, purest truth, absolute understanding, walking and living in
absolute light and truth the perfection of
the mind of Christ within.
The
following words by Ray Prinzing put the cap-stone on this beautiful truth: With the
extinguishing of earths lights, comes the forth-shining of Gods luminaries of
the new creation order. HE IS the True Light, which lighteth every man that
cometh into the world (Jn. 1:9). And
He is also The Father of lights
(James
1:17). He births after His own kind. Now
ye are light in the Lord (Eph. 5:8). To
the new order He speaks, Arise, shine; for
thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee. For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth,
and gross darkness the people (as earths lights are diminished), but the Lord shall arise upon thee, and His glory
shall be seen upon thee. And the nations
shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising (Isa.
60:1-3). Turn to see the fading of the old
order, and your back is to the dawning of the new. Turn
to see that new light arising, and your back is to the diminishing former lights. O, to behold Him, and with a single eye to follow
on, for the path of the just is as a shining
light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day (Prov. 4:18) end quote.
To be continued
J. PRESTON EBY
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